Month: December 2018

Kidney stones are accumulations of mineral salts that can lodge anywhere along the urinary tract. 80% of the time, they are calcium stones (calcium oxalate), a condition known as hypercalciuria. This is mainly due to a diet consisting of too much animal protein. The consumption of animal protein is strongly associated with oxalate production. The body reacts by producing an excess of acids to digest meat and other high protein animal and fish foods. The excess acids cause the pH balance of the blood to become too acidic. The body leeches calcium (an alkaline mineral) from the bones to restore the ph balance in the bloodstream. The remaining calcium is eliminated through the urine in the form of calcium oxalate. When there is a high enough concentration of calcium, it begins to crystallize and form small clumps, which eventually become stones.

A health-supporting vegetarian diet that emphasizes low protein foods help prevent the formation of Calcium Kidney Stones in most people and would be of particular benefit to those who suffer from recurrent stones.

Symptoms:

Pain radiating from the upper back to the lower abdomen and groin, frequent urination, pus and blood in the urine, absence of urine formation, and sometimes chills and fever. The size of the stones can range from a microscopic speck to a fingertip.

Recommendations:

Herbal detoxification products may be helpful in dissolving kidney stones nad flushing toxins, chemicals, heavy metals, and thousands of other poisons out of the body. We suggest using formulas that use organic, whole herbs.If interested, take a look at the Kidney Bladder Formula and Hot Cayenne Extract.

We suggest a high quality whole food supplement, like VITAFORCE that is complete and made from whole foods which corrects nutritional deficiencies and boosts the immune system.

In the morning, drink the consuming the Kidney Flush drink; 8-16 ounces of distilled water. The juice of one lemon and lime. 5-15 drops of the Hot Cayenne Extract, and a touch of maple syrup for taste (optional). This drink may help eliminate toxins and dissolve kidney stones.

All Animal Foods: dairy foods (milk, cheese, butter, cream, ice cream), fish, meat, chicken, turkey, eggs, fried and greasy foods, margarine, and all other processed foods and animal derived products from your diet. These foods are laced with chemicals, pesticides, and toxins as well as high levels of saturated fats and excess protein which lead to kidney stones.

Even though there was a complete lack of scientific evidence to support Mr. Key’s saturated fat/cholesterol theory of heart disease, the government and professional medical associations eventually agreed that Americans should eat less red meat, whole dairy products, eggs and all other foods high in saturated fat. And although since then, 50 years and millions of dollars have been spent on scientific studies trying to link consumption of animal fat with increased rates of heart disease, all studies show there is no such link.

Perhaps it was the failure of scientists to demonstrate a link between consumption of animal fat and heart disease that many other arguments have been made in favor of diets that limit the amount of meat in the diet. Many go far beyond health and nutrition and include a wide range of topics such as the environmental impact of feeding a population on meat, or the suffering of animals.

One of the most obviously flawed of these arguments is the claim that our early ancestors ate very little meat.

If you’re of European descent, your early ancestors were almost entirely dependent upon the consumption of animal flesh for about half of the year.

Before the advent of agriculture, human beings were hunter-gatherers. They depended on gathering food from their wild habitat.

For the ancient hunter-gatherers of Europe, the first frosts of autumn brought an end to the supply of fresh fruits and vegetables. Nuts and seeds would have been plentiful in the autumn season. However, these foods are soon depleted by rodents, birds and other mammals in stiff competition for food when cold weather causes foods of plant and insect origin to disappear from the landscape.

Not only is it nearly impossible to obtain foods of plant origin during cold winter months when the snow covered ground is frozen solid and streams are covered by a thick layer of ice, but also, early spring is the most difficult time of year to obtain food from plants because all nuts and seeds have been thoroughly depleted and sporadic freezes delay the onset of the growing season. After the ground thaws, roots can be dug and some edible sprouts grow rapidly in mid spring, but most fruits aren’t available until at least early summer.

The importance of the hunt for large mammals by our early ancestors is clearly supported in the archaeological evidence they left behind. One of the most common images left on the walls inside caves of prehistoric man is that of the hunt of deer, bison, mammoth and other large mammals.

The hunt for large mammals took on a religious tone. This is the natural result of a people who depend heavily upon animals for their own lives. They depended upon these large animals for food, depended upon their hides for warm clothing, used the bones of animals for tools, and even used animal parts as ornaments to grace their bodies.

The same religious tones surrounding the hunt for mammals is evident in the aboriginal peoples of Northern Asia, Australia, Africa, the Americas and other prehistoric peoples around the globe.

Meat and the flesh of other animals was one of the primary, and for some prehistoric cultures, the only plentiful source of food. So the claim that the diet of our prehistoric ancestors consisted of little meat and saturated fat is simply ridiculous. For thousands of years humans depended upon meat for nourishment, often eating nothing else for months at a time.

The next claim grain pushers make is that the meat of wild animals eaten by prehistoric people was very lean, and did not provide large amounts of fat, like modern cows.

But the truth is that among prehistoric human cultures, both the fat and high cholesterol liver were highly prized parts of animals they hunted. They ate the liver raw soon after the kill. And they removed every last bit of fat from the animal and rationed it, adding it to all meals, even meals of vegetable origin. Unlike most people in modern America, they knew the value of animal fat and the important role it played in human nutrition. The leanest cuts of meat became food for their dogs.

As an example of the extra effort they put into getting plenty of animal fat in the diet, the Inuit of North America made pemmican. They dried and crushed the lean meat and added fat in a fifty-fifty mix so that every mouth-full included as much fat as it did lean meat.

Every one of the thousands of large animal bones I ever found while digging on sites occupied by prehistoric humans, had been cracked open to remove the fat in the bone marrow. This fat was part of the ingredients of pemmican.

We are the first culture of people that ever intentionally avoided animal fat, the first people to trim fat off meat and discard it. Ancient people and those living traditional cultures would have thought you had gone mad if they saw you cut the fat off meat and throw it away.

Throughout history and around the world, all previous cultures prized animal fat as a vital part of the diet. To improve the nutritional value of food, they added animal fat to many foods that didn’t have animal fat to begin with.

Furthermore, the tradition of adding animal fat to foods continued right up until the 1980’s when they put the final touches on the process of replacing expensive animal fat with cheaply produced vegetable oil, a process that began in the beginning of the 1900’s, a process that is directly correlated with increasing rates of heart disease.

Not only did our hunter-gatherer prehistoric ancestors know more about which natural foods provide optimum health than we do today, even wild animals know more about which natural foods are most healthful to their bodies.

We’re out-of-touch with nature and out-of-touch with our bodies. And we’re causing misery to both.

Modern medicine has increased the average life expectancy by heroics that enable most babies, no matter how weak and sickly, and no matter how badly deformed at birth, to live at least into middle age. Using antibiotics, it has eliminated millions of deaths caused by virus and bacteria. Moreover, using modern techniques, they can keep the sick and dying alive for decades, even if they have to hook them up to tubes and machines. But heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis, and even tooth decay were practically nonexistent in ancient humans, largely because the diet of prehistoric humans was far more nutritious than the diet of most people today.

The truth is that the unnatural high carbohydrate(sugar) diet was born with the invention of agriculture and the development of grain. And the reason grain became the primary source of food for the masses is that grain madepossible the formation of large and powerful centers of human population called civilization.

Civilization was impossible when humans were hunter-gatherers because local wild plants and animals were soon depleted. Once depleted, the group had to move to a new location for food. The larger the group of

people, the more often they were forced to move to new lands in search of food. Therefore, large and powerful groups of people living the hunter-gatherer life style were impossible.

But grain not only made it possible for the development of large powerful centers of human population, grain also ushered in obesity, osteoporosis, cancer, and the other “Diseases of Civilization”. (And ushered out freedom of the individual and family group)

This isn’t theory and conjecture. Introduction of these diseases to remote traditional cultures around the globe was well documented by Dr. David Livingston, Dr. Weston Price, and many other doctors in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s.

Before grain became a large part of the diet, even though these remote traditional cultures had never even seen a tooth brush, most people never had a single dental cavity.

One by one, remote disease-free healthy peoples living traditional cultures on every continent and the islands were introduced to the high carbohydrate(sugar) grain based diet. And within a decade, obesity, osteoporosis, cancer, tooth decay and the other “Diseases of Civilization” became part of the culture.

Dental Assistants take pride in providing quality care to patients. They assist Dentists with procedures and Dental Hygienists with assistance during preventative cleanings. However, many Dental Assistants understand there is a population of individuals who do not receive the dental care they should because they have no insurance and they can’t afford to pay for it out of pocket. The result of not obtaining proper dental care is ongoing health and dental issues that spiral out of control.

Many low income families are not receiving dental care. Often, dental programs are available through a variety of programs including Child Development Services, Migrant Services, and Head Start. All of these programs are conducted throughout the United States. These programs provide schooling for children and parenting skills for parents. The programs often include programs of budgeting, meal planning, family activities, and dental care. These programs are Federally funded.

In these programs, children and their families receive dental care for free. This requires qualified Dental Assistants to assist Dentists and Dental Hygienists in their work of providing procedures and dental cleanings to patients in these programs. Since their dental care is limited, it is very important for them to become educated about oral hygiene. Education becomes a key for them to work hard to maintain quality dental hygiene on their own as much as they can.

Dental Assistants often conduct training workshops for these types of programs, stressing the importance oral hygiene. The programs include information on brushing twice a day, the proper way to brush, the importance of flossing, and the proper way to floss. Family members are generally given handouts as well as toothbrushes, toothpaste, floss, and pills that will show the plaque you missed on your teeth by turning the areas a bright color. These educational workshops are very helpful to the families involved in these programs.

For children and adults who have severe dental needs, this many be the only way they will ever be able to have those needs addressed. Dental Assistants who work with low income families often earn less than Dental Assistants in other dental fields of employment. However, they find a strong satisfaction in helping families obtain dental care. To them, it is more rewarding than any increase in pay.

The lack of programs to help with those who can’t afford adequate dental care is a huge concern for Dental Assistants all across the Nation. It is an issue that needs to be addressed locally, statewide, and on a Federal level. Many Dental professionals agree to assist with education and providing services to low income populations because they understand the dire need of such care.

While Medicare and Medicaid programs under Federal guidelines offer some relief for families, many don’t qualify for the programs, yet still don’t earn enough money to pay for the care on their own. In addition, most dental facilities don’t accept the Federal programs or they only accept a limited number of participants at a time.
The Surgeon General has only yet begun to conduct studies on the effects of low income families not receiving the dental care they need. However, they do agree that the issue needs to be addressed. They have implemented some strategies to improve the situation.

They would like to see the expansion of mobile dental clinics, public dental clinics, and school based dental clinics. They would also like to see schools and other educational programs focusing more on oral hygiene. Possibility adding toothbrushes and areas to each classroom for students to use after breakfast and lunch on a daily basis.

The Surgeon General is also looking into developing programs for dental staff, including Dental Assistants to receive assistance with tuition if they agree to work in low income dental facilities for a specified period of time. It is their hope that the staff will choose to remain their after that time period has ended because they see how beneficial their services are to the patients they are serving.

Anxiety is a very common disorder in today’s world, largely due to the fact that we feel hurried, pressured and pushed to perform, pay the mortgage, deal with kids, and on top of all that, live a full life. No wonder we have anxiety. But what is anxiety trying to tell us? From a Jungian Psychology perspective, anxiety is the psyche’s way of telling us that the way we are living is out of balance. Rather than view anxiety as something to be eliminated, with medication, we need to see that the psyche is giving us a clear message about our one-sided life and is gently asking us to change this. Viewed in this light, anxiety symptoms are there to guide us out of a lifestyle that is no longer working.

Carl Jung argued that anxiety symptoms are purposive, functional and have a goal – the alteration of our lifestyle. When we eliminate the symptoms through medication, we deny the wisdom of the psyche in making normal, natural change. Anxiety often appears in mid-life, when many of us experience a mid-life crisis. The first half of life is aimed at establishing our identity, our relationships, our occupation, and building up the necessary resources to accomplish all of these tasks. But, there comes a time when we need to turn inwards, to encounter the contents of the unconscious (often provided to us in the form of dreams) and search out the essential meaning of life. What is my purpose in life? Why am I here? How could I be living a more balanced, natural life? It is anxiety that often propels us towards answering these questions. When next you feel intense anxiety, ask yourself what the psyche is trying to tell you? What is it that I am doing that creates the anxiety, then begin to address the causes of the symptoms, rather than the cure.

If we answer the question – what is the anxiety trying to tell me – we begin to address the cause. This may mean some change in the way you life your life, but this change does not necessarily mean that you become less competent, or less valued, rather, it means that you begin to value the wisdom of your psyche more than before. By addressing the causes of the anxiety and making lifestyle changes, the anxiety should diminish, having achieved its goal – leading you towards a more full, balanced lifestyle.

Most people have bowel movements every day or every second day depending on their diet and lifestyle. Constipation is having difficulty trying to empty your bowels for more than 3 or 4 days, or having extremely hard stools that cause pain when you try to expel them from your body. You must eat food that softens your stools to relieve constipation. Eating food that makes them harden will make the condition worse.

Heavy foods like red meat, deep-fried foods like battered fish and chips, bakery products with like pastries, cakes and bread generally take a long time to digest. Food must pass through the stomach, large intestine, small intestine, colon then the bowels before the waste products are passed out of the body as waste. Along the way different nutrients and water are extracted and delivered to the part of the body that requires it. The longer the process takes the more water is extracted, the drier or harder the stools become. Also if food is relatively dry to start with or inadequate liquid (excluding caffine products and alcohol which may be dyhydrating) is consumed the end product (the stools) will subsequently be dry or hard. [“Water is the best drink for a wise man.” said the French philosopher Henry David Thoreau.]

Red meat comes from large strong animals so it’s meat is tougher compared with the animals that white meat comes from. Therefore its meat takes longer to break down in our bodies because the muscles are stronger. White meat is easier to digest because fish and poultry have smaller muscles compared with cattle and pigs.

Fried food is generally oily. Oil makes the food tasty and softer in most cases but it is something the body doesn’t really need. The body must work harder to extract oil and fats from food so that they can be expelled. If the body’s digestive system is busy trying to neutralise other toxins that have entered the system the fat will be placed in “storage areas” around the body until it has resources to process it. When these “store rooms” are too crowded we feel bloated and uncomfortable.

Products which contain a lot of wheat flour and oil which have little nutritional value. Flour is basically a carrier for other foods. For example, the pastry shell of a pie is a “bag” or edible packaging for the meat, vegetables or fruit inside it, bread is what holds a sandwich together. The crust or bread simply make the filling more palatable and easier to digest. But most breads and pastries are simply flour, oil and air which contain no nutrients. Consuming more of the pastry rather than the filling will just clog up your digestive system, especially if you are constipated.

As my title promised I need to nominate the 3 top foods to avoid that someone with constipation should avoid. To narrow down the candidates we should consider foods that fall into two or all of the above three categories then pick out the ones that are consumed the most. The nominations are:

Meat pies and sausage rolls contain red meat and flour.

Fish and Chips are fried and the batter contains flour.

Barbecued or grilled steak – meat that is cooked relatively quickly doesn’t break down the fatty tissue and muscles as well as slow cooked meat so when it enters your stomach it has to be broken down more by your digestive juices.

Potato chips or crisps are fried and very dry. Your body must use more water to digest this so your stools will become harder if you are already constipated.

Hard cheeses as they have most of their moisture content pressed out in their production process. As well they contain fat and protein from a large animal.

Deep fried meat like schnitzel, sweet and sour pork, fried chicken.

Bacon and eggs or sausages and eggs.

Salami and other processed meats.

My pick for the top three are meat pies, deep-fried battered fish ‘n chips and potato crisps. What are yours?